“Not likely,” April said. “The mount is still in here.”
Tetiana circled the bush, stopping abruptly and squatting in front of it. “I think I see it—or what’s left of it. It’s been shattered into pieces.”
April emerged from the bush. “It must have happened recently. Is its memory card in the wreckage?”
Brody released a bark of laughter. “Don’t bother asking Tetiana—she’d never be able to recognize it!”
“Do you think someone was already here, and left?” I asked April, keeping my voice as low as possible.
April summoned another ball of flames, so she held one in each hand. Her wizard tattoo was a stark mark on her face as the blue light of the flames lit up her facial features. “I don’t know. Maybe Brody should take a sniff—”
“Werewolves,” Brody growled. He stood on the edge of the sidewalk, sniffing the wind. “There’s been a Pack in the area—within the past fifteen minutes.”
“April, Tetiana,” I snapped.
The duo hurried back across the street while April juggled her fireballs so she could grapple with her radio, pulling it from her belt. “This is Team Blood,” she said into her radio. “We’ve got—”
There was a bang, and April’s radio exploded into shrapnel.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Jade
April thrust her hand over her head and her flames transformed into a blue, transparent, convex shield.
“We’re under attack!” Tetiana grabbed April’s shoulders and steered her around the car, trying to put it between us and whoever was shooting.
I did the same with Brody while I scanned the sky—trying to see the shooter. “Get in the car!” I shouted. “Brody—you drive. April needs to shield us.”
“We’re leaving?” Tetiana asked.
“It’s more important that we survive and warn headquarters,” I said.
April still held both her arms up over her head, keeping the shield active overhead. It didn’t seem like the bullet that had destroyed her radio had gotten her hand, but the shrapnel had shredded her glove and my teeth ached so she must have gotten a few scratches. “Keys are in my front right pocket.”
Tetiana fished in April’s pocket, then handed the keys to Brody as he wrenched the front passenger door open.
A bullet pinged off April’s shield, but it held.
“Can you keep the shield active over the top of the car while we move?” I asked as Brody climbed into the front seat, wriggling so he stayed below the window.
April shook her head. “I’m not good enough to pull that off.” She briefly stood up, raising the shield with her so she could look over the top of the car without getting shot. She immediately crouched back down. “They’re coming! I saw shapes emerging across the street.”
I pressed myself against the side of the car and carefully poked my head past the front bumper. “I see two werewolves—in wolf form,” I said. “They’re frontline—incoming first.”
Brody stuck the keys in the ignition, then stupidly risked popping his face up so he could peer through the window. “That’s a mercenary Pack.”
Tetiana crawled into the back seat of the car, huddling down so she was beneath the window. “That’s a thing?”
“Yeah—it’s a way for an entire Pack to make good money, and the Pack bond makes them more formidable to take on,” Brody said. “The most famous groups are trained in guns and stuff. This is probably one of the top Packs.”
“Of course, they are,” April grumbled.
I checked again. The werewolves—their wolf forms were a light gray mixed with white that made them easier to see in the darkness—had made it to the street. “April, get in the car,” I said. “Try to cover Brody inside the car—they’re going to start shooting the windows in a second.”
April paused to adjust, then collapsed her shield so she could dive inside the car. She smashed into Tetiana as she placed her hands next to the back passenger window and created a new shield, this one stretching from the back to the front window.
